Sage Brush Safari

This was the first race of the US Cup 50 miler series. Scott and I prerode the week before and I was ready to go on the new Marin. The course is a mix of mostly road climbs and excellent single track descents; two laps for the 50 miler. The Rodder crew rolled out together in the Eurovan - stylin! Scott and I went out together, pretty hard, but not too hard. The new bike was riding well and things were going smoothly through Wrangler (fun) and Bronco (some hike a bike). We picked off some riders as we climbed back up to Four Corners. I went into the red a bit here and backed it off as we headed into the aid station. Scott got out of there and pulled away on the road climb up to Los Pinos. I wouldn't see him until the finish (nice work Scotty!). Over the top at Los Pinos, down the fireroad on the other side. Feeling invincible on the new bike, I picked up a huge amount of speed... oh, better soak up that water bar. Oh shit, I hit that fast... getting bucked... coming down on the front wheel... too far forward... ground rushing up... ow, big crash. It seemed like it took forever to get going again. Looking at my Garmin data later, it was only about 5 minutes. A bunch of guys went past in that time. Once I realized I was able to ride, I started worrying about the bike. Everything seemed ok, but I was afraid I'd miss something and have another crash. I thought about packing it in - I could just coast down the road to the start finish. But that would be a lame way to go out, and it would hurt just as bad there as it would riding. So eventually I got going again, and limped down to Spur Meadow trail. I ran into Matt at Four Corners. He'd had flats and was done racing, but helped me with bottles (thanks Matt!). The crash took some of the fight out of me, but I hung in. Bronco was no fun - getting on and off the bike hurt. The second climb up to Los Pinos ws a grind too, but I enjoyed the ride down Spur Meadow, what a great trail. Descending Kernan, I caught up to Danny Munoz. This guy is crazy fast, why I catching up to him? He'd had a nasty crash (into a Jeep!) and had to replace a wheel. Bad luck! We rode in the rest of the way. I ended up 8 out of 16 in the Open men 30-39 category. Not so bad considering. Scott finished 2nd, awesome job.

Marin Team CXR 29er carbon HT - first impressions

After racing the Spring Challenge on a borrowed bike, I had two weeks to figure something out for Sage Brush. Warranty replacement for the Motobecane was going to take a while, so I decided to get a new race bike. The Marin Team CXR is a carbon 29er hardtail. The frame is tube to tube construction, where carbon tubes are bonded together to make up the frame. Cool features include a tapered head tube and bent chain/seat stays with the rear caliper located inside the bend. The front end and BB areas are huge (= stiff!). It comes with Black Flag wheels and Fox RL fork with 9mm QR. I swapped out the wheels for my Stans crest wheels, and installed my old Reba with 1-1/8 steerer. Basically, I didn't see the point of a new fork with 9mm QR setup, so I planned to sell the OEM fork and upgrade to a thru axle fork and wheel eventually.

Ride impressions  Using my old wheelset and fork made for a direct comparison with the Motobecane Ti frame. The Marin climbs like a goat. It's stiffer than my old Motobecane Ti 29er, which is evident in climbing, tracking through turns, and pedaling out of the saddle. At the same time, there's a subtle smoothness to the ride. It's clearly a hardtail, but an element of mellow takes the harsh edge off the trail - even in comparison to my old Ti frame. It handles tight switchbacks nimbly, unlike some 29ers (like my FS RIP9) that navigate switchbacks like an 18 wheeler. It picks up speed super fast on the downhills. The stiffer front end definitely shows up the flexiness in my old Reba and front wheel. Need more ride time to get familiar and dial everything in, but it's good so far.

Idyllwild Spring Challenge

 I was really looking forward to the great Spring Challenge course, and a weekend in the mountains. But Tuesday before the race I discovered a crack in my frame. Not good. After some scrambling, I borrowed a bike and even got in a shake down ride. The bike was a Banshee Paradox - a 29er hardtail with super short chainstays and slack head angle. I couldn't handle it as well as Mike (it's really suited to his riding characteristics), but I could work with it. I was racing in open category so I could do the long course. At 27 miles, it's shorter than a marathon, but longer than a typical XC course. All the climbing and single track made it feel longer too.
We went out fast for the first climb up to Keen pass, and were soon on May Valley fireroad. I was pretty far into the red at this point, but there's a lot of downhill in the second half of the course, so better go at it now. The Banshee and I got acquainted on the singletrack Bonita Vista trail down to the base of Lower Southridge. Ah, Southridge: rock and root infested hike a bike climb. I do actually kind of like it, though in the race I tend to dismount readily rather than try to clear everything; the spirit's all wrong, but it's faster. I settled in back on the fireroad, enjoyed the fun singletrack section near the top of MVF, then hit town at Astrocamp. Diana met me near the top of the course to hand off some bottles... thanks D! The final climb is some nasty steep road through town. The payoff is a great downhill singletrack, Mid Southridge. I had passed Coach on the road climb but he went hauling past on the descent - Coach has skills! After the initial steep trail, we raced Snakeskin, Cahuuilla, and Tres Hombres trails. This is where the early hard climbs catch up with me. It's downhill overall, but the trail twists left, right, up, and down through lots of tech sections. In other words, awesome trails, but not the sort where you can just sit and spin. This year the final section went back across Keen meadow and down the Keen pass trail. It seemed a little easier than the usual course; at that point, I wasn't complaining. I finished in 2:57 for 3rd place (of 11) in Open men 30-39. Would've been 10/16 in Cat 1, though... keeping me humble.

12 Hours of Temecula, June 2011

The June 12-Hours of Temecula had a lot to live up to. January's course was a fun, fast, roller coaster course; the weather was good; and Team Sherpa Dog had a great day. Personally, I had one of those special days where things just click - I did 8 laps, including 2 sets of double laps, and felt mentally and physically strong all day. I had done a lot of training since then, and so hoped for big things.

The parade lap seemed longer than usual, but the field was larger too. Riding in a pack with a bunch of mountain bikers is terrifying, but getting stuck behind slower riders is a lousy way to start. By the time we turned onto the course, I had a decent position in the top 20-30 riders. At that point I tried to settle in and ride my own pace, rather than race the really fast guys or the lead off riders on 4 man teams. I redlined it more than was smart, but did a decent first lap without hurting myself for later in the day.

While Mike was out, I caught my breath in our sweet double wide (actually, double deep) canopy pit stop. Fellow Rodder Racers Scott and Matt were riding solo (12 and 6 hr versions, respectively), while Milin was also racing on a 2 man team (Team Pegasus). Diana was running the pit, sporting her new Super D tee shirt. Milin left on his second lap, and I followed a few minutes later, wondering if I could catch up with him. It turned out that this would not be a problem...

Race director Jason Ranoa had laid out a short, fun course with two extended climbs and lot of twisty singletrack. About 10 minutes of riding brought me to the first climb, Bridges, which features a few winding switchbacks followed by a few steep ridgeline ups. The total climb is about 250 ft. Next, I descended Tarantula, a bunch of blown out switchbacks filled with deep sand. I was ugly on this all day. Eventually, I abandoned my pride and ran the worst sections, which was probably faster and definitely safer than if I'd ridden it. Tarantula feeds into the top of Tunnel of Love, a swoopy, rolly downhill section that can make you smile even after 6 laps.

Still no sign of Milin, but I thought I might pull him back on the next section, another 250 ft climb, this time on steady fireroad. This climb was about the halfway point of the lap, and took me about 6-7 minutes all day. I reached the top and made the hairpin turn onto Marlin Ridge. If you've never ridden at Vail Lake, the best way to picture the ridgeline descents is to imagine a roller coaster laid out on the top of a narrow ridge. The ground falls away steeply to either side of you, while the trail drops steeply, turns, back up, down, turn, up, turn, down, and so on. My gps recorded speeds of 20-25mph, but I suspect it was faster for brief periods. Some of the downhill sections are steep and rocky. It was on just such a section that I came on someone tending to a rider who had crashed. As I went past, I saw that the downed rider was wearing a Rodder kit. Milin! It took a second to process all this and I was 30 yards down the trail before I could stop. Milin was lying parallel to the trail, feet uphill. It was obviously serious or he would have been up already. I had done wilderness first aid training about 18 months ago, but he seemed stable so it wasn't clear what to do besides keep him comfortable, make sure nobody ran him over, and wait for help. Other riders had already carried the word down to the aid station. I told the two riders who had initially helped to keep riding. Milin was clearly in a lot of pain. As he described it, his brakes failed, he hit a choppy section at high speed, went over the bars, and landed on rocks hard on his right side. Based on the pain he was describing, I was worried he might have a fractured hip or pelvis.

I told Milin some stupid stories to distract him while we waited for help. For instance, did he know that, for reasons that were now self evident, the fireroad climb just before this descent was called "Ambulance"? The first help was a couple of guys from the aid station. I asked if they had any training... like first aid training? Nope. Then get on the radio and get someone up here with a board. I was pretty sure we were going to be locking Milin down and carting him out. By this time, Matt had come on us and stopped to warn riders to slow down. Scott came through a little later, but there wasn't anything for him to do, and we told him to ride on and pass the word to Mike and Diana in the pit, who were probably worried and confused. An EMT showed up a little later with a proper back board. About that time, a rider stopped, said he was an EMT as well, and offered to help. This guy was from team Cytomax/KHS, I think he was a Navy guy, he was awesome, and I/we really appreciate his help. Anyway, the EMTs did an assessment, we taped Milin down to the board, and drove him out on the back of a quad. An ambulance met us down in the campground. Cale, Milin's teammate, went with Milin to the hospital.

After conferring with Jason, I rode back up and resumed the course at the bottom of Marlin - just about where I had left off. A single track climb, twisty descent, a few side canyons and bmx tracks, and I was back to the pit area. I was out for about 1:50. After conferring with Jason, he decided to leave the time as it was, but give us credit for an additional lap. That seemed much better than the alternative of giving us a time equal to my first lap time, but only one lap, which would basically have meant we missed an hour of racing - which we almost certainly could have used to do another lap. All in all, I was happy with the way Jason handled it. Most importantly, I was glad he had plans and people in place to deal with a serious injury. I was also glad I was be there with Milin while we waited for help. I've had a few bad crashes, and it means a lot to have folks look out for you.

The rest of the day went by fast. After my extended 2nd lap, Mike and I swapped laps and my 3rd and 4th went well. I did scrub a little extra speed at the site of Milin's crash, but overall I was riding with confidence and good energy. A few adjustments to my fork and riding position in the week before had really helped with the bike handling.

I did a double on my 5th and 6th laps, riding the first just a little more conservatively and just slowing a few minutes on the second one. I had a Red Bull rally in the pit and was ready for the last lap of day. Team Sherpa Dog was currently running in 4th position. Waiting in the exchange area, I saw Kyle, a CSUSM student on a two man team that was in 5th. Kyle is super fast, and had passed me on our previous laps. His partner was a good bit slower, but I knew he could make up 5 minutes on me. Mike came in, told me the third place team was just a few minutes ahead. Third! I was worried about holding fourth!

As with the entire 12 Hr event, the only thing to do is ride as fast as you can and not worry about everyone else. I had no idea how long Kyle was going to be waiting for his teammate - he could be starting 1 min behind me or 10. It also wouldn't do any good to catch the 3rd place rider on Bridges only to blow up on Ambulance. But I did ride knowing it was my last lap. Kyle never caught me, and though it was dusk fading into night, I put up a time within a min or two of my earlier laps.

It turned out that Team Sherpa Dog finished 5th in the two man category (Kyle's team did not beat us, but someone else vaulted up in the standings, or perhaps there was a correction to the earlier results). Scott did 11 laps for 4th in Expert Men Solo. Milin got discharged from the hospital with no broken bones or internal injuries. A mostly good day...

Idyllwild Spring Challenge, part 2: Time trial

At the end of the XC race on Saturday, I told myself that all I needed to do was finish the race and I could bail on Sunday's Time Trial and Super D races. At first, it was a lie, easily seen through by the part of my brain that answered to my legs. But then it became a promise (to be broken), which gradually was believed. This helped with the last third of the XC race (first mental rule of endurance racing: only think about the next portion, not the entire insurmountable thing). After the race and a bit of recovery, I was ready to break the promise and think about the time trial. On Sunday morning, Scott and I headed up to Alvin Meadows to check out the course. Our pre-ride cum warm-up took about 20-30 min. The course could be described in one word: twisty. It didn't go straight for more than 20 feet in any direction, left-right or up-down. Add in a few rocks and trees, and you had a great all around test of mountain biking skills. This was no fireroad aerobic test, but also an assessment of handling, acceleration, and power.

As you'd expect in a time trial, we went off on 1 minute intervals. I was nervous for the start. Unanswered questions nagged at me... I wasn't too worried about riding hard, but could I carry speed through the turns? Could I run cleanly over the rocks? As I waited for the countdown to my start, I calmed and emptied my mind. And.... GO! The course was rolling up and down, but first part of the course was more down than up. Downhill, pick up speed, brake for the turn, lean the bike, hit the gas, out of the saddle for a short climb, lean again for the next turn, hammer out the turn into the straight, on and on for the longest 3 miles. I had a clean run, about as fast as I could have gone. The course was a blast, and the preride was essential. A couple more times around would have helped, as there were a few sections where I could have carried more speed if I'd remembered how the next section went.

In the second half of the course, there was more climbing than descending. My quads were burning at this point, which I took as a sign that I was doing something right. A tight rock squeeze, up a steep pitch, and I knew the end was close. Finally, off the singletrack onto a last bit of fireroad to the finish. I was done in 20:46, good for 4th among the 9 Open men, slower than nearly all the Pros and Cat 1 men (but faster than all the Cat 2 men :)  All in all, a good, fast, clean run with no mistakes and a high intensity effort. A cool down, an hour's rest, and time to start thinking about the next race: the Super D, subject of the next post.

Idyllwild Spring Challenge, part 1: XC

This weekend (4/30 -5/1) was the Idyllwild Spring Challenge - three races over two days on excellent trails. First up was the cross country race on Saturday, then a time trail and super D on Sunday. Each race was scored individually, but you could compete in all three as a stage race.

First, the cross country race. I raced in the Open category, which was basically for people who wanted to race Cat 1 but didn't have a license.

The course was billed as 27 miles, 4300 feet of climbing. Those of you who know the area will appreciate the route (and that the pros did it in <2:30): start with the Keen Camp climb out of Hurkey Creek, cross Johnston Meadow, climb May Valley fireroad, then Mirkwood (singletrack) to the Lower Southridge (hike a bike) climb. Back on May Valley fireroad, take Sunset trail, back on May Valley, then cut through town to the Southridge fireroad climb (last of the major climbs). Head back down hitting pretty much every piece of single track on the east side of May Valley Fireroad: Middle Southridge, Snakeskin, Tres Hombres (uno, dos, tres), Grindstone, Coffepot, Exfoilator, Rage Thru the Sage, and Tunnel of Love. Makes me tired just typing it. Then a bit of Apple Canyon Road and over Demoralizer to the finish.

Those of you who don't know the area really ought to go up there. Just the best twisty, flowing, singletrack through a beautiful forest setting and only 2hrs from SD.

Ok, so that's the course. On paper it is uphill to about 10 miles, then gradually downhill. So I went pretty hard on the climbs. I had dialed back the training volume and recovered from doing Vision Quest and Julian Death March on back to back weekends (which had left me wrecked, as Eric, my coach, had predicted). Despite going hard, I felt good and cleaned a lot of Lower Southridge. I had last ridden that trail a couple years ago and remember it being a slog. This time it took about 20 min. I continued to feel good climbing through town to the top of Southridge fireroad, reaching the high point of the course in about 1:40.

From here it went downhill, literally and - somewhat - figuratively. The start of the descent was steep with some loose sections, and I was tired and somewhat sloppy. Mentally, it is tough for me to switch gears from hard climbing to technical descending. After a couple dabs, I put my seat down some, which helped. But I gave up a few places to guys I'd outpaced on the climbs, and that got in my head a bit.

I was able to regroup and was probably riding pretty well, but every time I hit the brakes or dabbed in a rock garden, it was felt like a setback. Plus, the early hard pace was getting to me - I was tired. At one point, after it seemed like I'd been riding forever, the trail straightened out long enough for me to check my gps and I saw I still had 8 miles left. Ugh. Racing must be crazy, because what could be better than endless singletrack? I started telling myself that if I just kept pushing today I could bail on the TT and SD . Still, I kept taking in calories and didn't bonk, so though I was tired my pace was good through the lower, more open sections of the course.

I finished in 3:08:45, good for 7th in my age group in the open class. I would have liked to run faster on the descents and tech sections, but put in a good effort with no major mistakes and no mechanicals.

Rodder Racing was well represented at Idyllwild. Scott had a great race and was about 5 minutes ahead, placing well in Cat 1. Milin also raced the long course and Mike from NBB did the Cat 2 course.

Next post: time trial!

next up... JDM!

No rest for the wicked... the Julian Death March is this weekend. JDM is closer and lower key than Vision Quest, but plenty grueling in it's own right. The course swings between the mountains and desert, with course options of 50, 64, or 86 miles and 7k, 9k, or 12k feet of climbing.

Two fun things about JDM: 1) I'll be joined by Rodder teammates Scott and Milin. Rodder in the house! 2) Apple pie. Yum.